From Military.com:
“As the Navy
Moved to Fire Capt. Crozier, Other Leaders Rallied Around Him”
Just hours
after the San Francisco Chronicle published Capt. Brett Crozier's now-famous
letter about the growing crisis aboard his aircraft carrier, emails started
rolling into his inbox. Crozier, the former commanding officer of the carrier
Theodore Roosevelt, was hailed as a hero after pleading with his leaders to
send his carrier to port in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19. It was
just weeks after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global
pandemic, and a lot was still unknown. Crozier was applauded for speaking truth
to power, and even repaired one officer's trust in military leadership. "You
restored my faith in what it means to be a [commanding officer]," an
auxiliaries division officer wrote to Crozier on April 2. "I came from a
pretty bad command climate on my previous ship and after 12 years in the
military was set on getting out after this tour. You restored that." Even
parents of sailors assigned to the Roosevelt asked the ship's ombudsman how
they could assist. "We read Captain Crozier's letter requesting assistance
from the Navy. We support everything that he has expressed in his letter. Is
there anything we, as parents, can do to help with this? Set up funds, write
[our] congressman, send supplies? Please let us know."
The new
revelations were uncovered in more than 1,100 pages worth of Crozier's incoming
and outgoing emails. The messages show that Crozier had the support and concern
of peers, superiors and subordinates and civilians alike -- even as top Navy
leaders moved to relieve him of command for what they said was the mishandling
of the health problems on the ship. The emails were obtained by Task and Purpose
through lawsuit after the Navy denied the outlet's Freedom of Information Act
request. (Military.com submitted a similar request to the Navy last year for
all Crozier's emails between the dates of March 1 and April 6, 2020, that
mentioned the words "virus," "nfection,"
"coronavirus," "COVID-19" or "COVID." That
request was also denied.) Two attorneys represented Task and Purpose pro bono
to fight the FOIA denial. When the Navy declassified the emails and released
them, Task and Purpose published them in full this week. "[They] are
America's records, and Americans have a legal right to them under the Freedom
of Information Act," Paul Szoldra, the outlet's editor-in-chief, said.
The commanding
officer from another ship with a positive COVID-19 case told Crozier he was
thankful for the captain's email, adding it hoped it would start "to move
the needle in how we are dealing with this onboard ship and the Navy writ
large." The Navy had a plan for how to deal with infectious disease on
ships, but most of its commands weren't following pandemic training
requirements before COVID hit, the Pentagon's watchdog agency later found. "Thank
you for having the guts to do what you did today sir," the CO wrote to
Crozier after the letter was published. "... I can tell you there are a
number of us at the O5 level that feel like we are being second guessed in any
action taken to prevent this from taking over as well as our response."
Navy leaders
were second-guessing Crozier on his handling of the Roosevelt's outbreak, too.
Days after the San Francisco Chronicle made his plea public, he was removed
from his job. Then-acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said at the time that
Crozier's letter led to unnecessary panic on the ship. Chief of Naval
Operations Adm. Mike Gilday later called Crozier's email warning
"unnecessary," and said the captain released sailors from quarantine
on the ship too quickly, which might've put others at risk. After a lengthy
review of the circumstances, top Navy leaders opted against reinstating him.
Modly later resigned from his position after criticism for his own handling of
the crisis. Crozier has been silent since his relief, but his letter -- along
with his emails -- describe the difficulty the crew faced in establishing
proper quarantine conditions on the Roosevelt as COVID-19 cases began
spreading. A week before his letter was published, Crozier described in an
email to a friend his concerns following a port call in Vietnam during which
dozens of sailors had contact with two people at their hotel who later tested
positive. "As you can imagine, a [carrier] is a tough place to isolate
anyone for 14 days but it worked," Crozier wrote on March 24. "Except
that this morning we had 3 different Sailors onboard that actually tested
positive for CV19 so we're now scrambling to deal with that.
Isolation/quarantine is almost impossible at this point. But we'll work through
it one way or another." The situation quickly worsened. More than 1,200
members of the nearly 5,000-person crew eventually tested positive. One crew
member died.
The crew turned
out to applaud for Crozier when he left the ship after his relief, and his
inbox shows he had support from far outside his command, too. "I know you
have a lot on your plate but I wanted to reach out and check on you," Rear
Adm. Steve Barnett, Navy Region Northwest's commander wrote on April 1.
"... [You] are a great leader and Naval Officer. Feel free to drop me a
line if/as needed." Another officer said he'd be honored to buy Crozier a
beer. "[You are a HERO for looking out for your Sailors and I'm sure they
are grateful for it," a commander and foreign area officer wrote. "We
need more leaders like you in our Navy. I truly hope you are not suffering any
repercussions over this from senior leadership, but if you are, you can at
least have a clear conscience knowing you did what was right and
necessary."
^ Captain Brett
Crozier is, and will always be, a true hero who fought hard to protect the men
and women under his command when the US Navy, the Pentagon and the White House
did little to nothing to help keep them safe and healthy. ^
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